"Lord, We Thank Thee For All Thy Bounty, Your Paper Towels Clean Up Our Messes Better Than That Brawny Dude"

Right now, cooking in and on Darth Vader (my mystical and posessed black electric oven, usually called "Dearth Vader", as we can rarely afford good food), are onions, garlic, shallots, pork, squash, potatoes, apples, maple syrup, cinnamon, sugar, butter and gravy. Soon we will add buttermilk biscuits to the list.

This meal has been brought to you by the letter Chardonnay and the number 420.

VIVA LA NOR' EASTER.

happy halloween.

Thank You and Good Night.

Bueller? Anyone?

The above pictured is a Christian monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai, where Moses talked to God.

They believe they have the original burning bush.

A few years ago there was a fire in the monastery.

They were very concerned for the safety of the bush.









It was fine. Thank God.

2013

They're going to put chips in your passport so they can identify you from a distance without you even knowing. Starting this year. Get your passport right now if you don't have one. Mine expires in 2013. I will be able to see the 08 and 12 elections pass before I decide whether I have to leave this country. If you get one right now you'll have until 16. Go. Fill out paperwork. Keep your passport in a very, very "secure location".

Nothing Teaches Like the Choked Up Voice of Someone Who Was There

This evening in my American history class we discussed and watched footage of the Civil Rights Movement. One student spoke after we viewed Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech. This man was in high school during the march and went down to D.C. to attend.

He told us with tears in his eyes that as he tried to move closer to hear MLK's words, he stepped on the foot of a black woman. He said "excuse me, ma'am". She broke down crying and told him that she was from Alabama and a white person had never said "excuse me" to her before.

In the silence that filled the room as he composed himself, the emotional reality of our American history hit me like a fire hose.

I Paid a Lot of Money to Learn This

Last night I spent four hours sitting in the same chair as both of my classes are in the same room on Tuesdays. My ass is now in the shape of those big fancy wooden chairs with the school shield thingy that ivy league schools have for no apparent reason.

Out of those four hours one very interesting fact stood out:

Aparently American kids picked up the habbit of wearing a baseball cap backwards from seeing American black Muslims do it. Muslims across the world (I was studying Turkey last night) wear brimmed hats backwards so that when they pray they can touch their foreheads to the ground. In Turkey the word "hat" was not even used until 1928 (when hats were required and fezes banned) because the word brought such strong images of infidel imperialist pigs. They called them "brimmed headdress of infidels". And Muslims traditionally wore sandals and slippers not just because they lived in hot, sandy Arabia, but because they had to wash their feet five times a day to pray and taking shoes on and off is a bother. The mid-to-late 19th century was when Ottoman armies were first required to wear boots to battle.

I learned something today. I learned that it is ironic for a kid with a backwards baseball cap to hate on Muslims.

The Braindirty Toll is Three Dollars

When we switched our internet to the new apartment, the company offered us a three dollar savings on our bill if we would kindly subscribe to their !FREE FOR SIX MONTHS! cable tv.








We pay three dollars a month not to have tv.

Trying to Sort Through the Semantics

How come we aren't supposed to say "colored people" when it's the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? I'm not looking to use the phrase - it makes me flinch the same as many Americans - I'm just trying to figure out the meanings of the words we use.

But if they changed the name of the NAACP, wouldn't the new term be out-dated and un-PC in a decade or two anyway?

Why are we not supposed to call black people black when it's okay to call white people white? Black people are never actually black and white people (except, I suppose, in the case of albinos) are never actually white, but it's an easy and clear way of talking about skin color. Black at one end, white on the other and a whole bunch of people who fall in between. Everyone will know what you mean if you use those words. What is wrong with that?

I'm all for being called whatever you want to be called, but I just want some consistancy. Changing the words we use to describe race and race relations does not make those who are shit on any better off nor does it change the attitudes of those who do the shitting.

[I had another paragraph here about my uncle being the only white kid in Hicksville, Florida to join the black kids in lowering the flag to half mast when MLK, Jr. was killed, and about how even white people like him who fought on the front lines of the civil rights war have to be careful about the words they use and jokes they tell for fear of being labeled "racist", but I have chosen to remove it because my wording of these ideas really might offend. If I was black I could have left it in. Which was my point in the first place.]

Those Who Would Give Up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY To Obtain A Little TEMPORARY SAFETY Deserve Neither Liberty Nor Safety

This morning I cried for my country. The last time I shed tears for Her was in November of 2004. We have a president who has produced more signing statements than all previous presidents combined, stating specifically that he can choose which laws to follow based on "his interpretation of the constitution". People within our borders and under our control abroad no longer have a right to know the charges against them nor to a fair and speedy trial by a jury of impartial peers. And now for the "privilage" of using PUBLIC transportation I must forfit my right to be secure in my person from unreasonable search and seizure.

The MBTA plans on randomly searching for explosives among the one million daily passengers of the transit system. Not only is finding one terrorist among one million not statistically possible by random searches, these searches are not-so-random harassment paid for by my tax dollars. But the MBTA wants you to know that this obliteration of your rights as an American citizen will not be inconvenient: they will even hold the train for you while they do their testing for explosives.

I want to boycott the MBTA. But I can't. I am too poor. To get the education I need to not be poor anymore, I need to go into the city. I cannot afford to fix my car well enough to safely make the journey, nor can I afford a taxi. Thus my tears this morning.

What I have chosen to do is carry my pocket-sized copy of the Constitution. If I am searched I will pull it out, politely explain to the officers that they cannot do this, and refuse to be searched. The MBTA has already stated that anyone who refuses to be searched must leave the T. If they do not leave they will be arrested. After my discussion with the officers I will leave the T. I will walk/hitch/call for a ride/scrape enough money together for a taxi, and then proceed to the nearest public land line and call the ACLU. And I will sue.

I also plan on contacting the ACLU to find out what my rights of protest are on MBTA property. I want to make a few hundred copies of the Bill of Rights and hand them out in and around T stops. I am also going to look into getting support from my school and starting an organization to educate the masses about their rights. I want every Bostonian stopped in the subway to refuse to be searched.

If you use the MBTA, please purchase a copy of the Constitution small enough to carry with you. Please refuse to be searched. Many have died for the freedoms we have, the least we can do is be inconvenienced in the name of Liberty. I want to die where I was born, but I will not die under a fascist state.

Despotism

This was made in 1946. It is 9:56 long. It is worth your time.

Tenative Hope

I don't much care what the Dems say about their chances. They are a bit sanguine for me. But when the GOP is freaking out, then I feel a little better.

Christian Activists UNITE!! Scream bloody murder until there are mass resignations over this! RIGHT NOW!! (Or at least between now and November.)

Aint nothin wrong with sittin back an enjoyin a little exposed hypocrisy. It so often goes unrecognized that I'm gonna hafta savor this, ya'll!